Error starting hyperledger fabcar sample applicati

I am trying to install hyperledger-fabric sample application from http://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/latest/write_first_app.html

I am getting error similar to post mentioned here: hyperledger fabric fabcar error

2017-08-24 07:47:16.826 UTC [grpc] Printf -> DEBU 005 grpc: addrConn.resetTransport failed to create client transport: connection error: desc = "transport: Error while dialing dial tcp 172.18.0.5:7051: getsockopt: connection refused"; Reconnecting to {peer0.org1.example.com:7051 <nil>}
Error: Error getting endorser client channel: PER:404 - Error trying to connect to local peer

Below are the logs for docker logs peer0.org1.example.com, apperantly peer is not able to connect to couchdb

2017-08-24 07:47:03.728 UTC [couchdb] handleRequest -> DEBU 011 HTTP Request: GET / HTTP/1.1 | Host: couchdb:5984 | User-Agent: Go-http-client/1.1 | Accept: multipart/related | Accept-Encoding: gzip |  |
2017-08-24 07:47:04.073 UTC [couchdb] handleRequest -> WARN 012 Retrying couchdb request in 125ms. Attempt:1  Error:Get http://couchdb:5984/: dial tcp 109.234.109.83:5984: getsockopt: connection refused
2017-08-24 07:47:04.199 UTC [couchdb] handleRequest -> DEBU 013 HTTP Request: GET / HTTP/1.1 | Host: couchdb:5984 | User-Agent: Go-http-client/1.1 | Accept: multipart/related | Accept-Encoding: gzip |  |
2017-08-24 07:47:04.385 UTC [couchdb] handleRequest -> WARN 014 Retrying couchdb request in 250ms. Attempt:2  Error:Get http://couchdb:5984/: dial tcp 109.234.109.77:5984: getsockopt: connection refused

I can see listening socket on port 5984

From docker exec -it couchdb bash docker exec -it couchdb bash

couchdb@57c8996a4ba6:~$ netstat -ntulpa
Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:5984            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6/beam.smp
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:5986          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      6/beam.smp
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.11:43471        0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      -
udp        0      0 127.0.0.11:52081        0.0.0.0:*                           -

From command shell without docker

# netstat -ntulpa | grep 5984
tcp6       0      0 :::5984                 :::*                    LISTEN      12877/docker-proxy

Why peer is not able to connect to couchdb?

Based on the comments, I think that your host system is configured to use a DNS search domain which automatically resolves unknown hostnames. You may need to modify the basic-network/docker-compose.yml and add dns_search: . as a config value for the peer:

peer0.org1.example.com:
    container_name: peer0.org1.example.com
    image: hyperledger/fabric-peer:x86_64-1.0.0
    dns_search: .
    environment:
      - CORE_VM_ENDPOINT=unix:///host/var/run/docker.sock
      - CORE_PEER_ID=peer0.org1.example.com
      - CORE_LOGGING_PEER=debug
      - CORE_CHAINCODE_LOGGING_LEVEL=DEBUG
      - CORE_PEER_LOCALMSPID=Org1MSP
      - CORE_PEER_MSPCONFIGPATH=/etc/hyperledger/msp/peer/
      - CORE_PEER_ADDRESS=peer0.org1.example.com:7051
      # # the following setting starts chaincode containers on the same
      # # bridge network as the peers
      # # https://docs.docker.com/compose/networking/
      - CORE_VM_DOCKER_HOSTCONFIG_NETWORKMODE=${COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME}_basic
      - CORE_LEDGER_STATE_STATEDATABASE=CouchDB
      - CORE_LEDGER_STATE_COUCHDBCONFIG_COUCHDBADDRESS=couchdb:5984
    working_dir: /opt/gopath/src/github.com/hyperledger/fabric
    command: peer node start
    # command: peer node start --peer-chaincodedev=true
    ports:
      - 7051:7051
      - 7053:7053
    volumes:
        - /var/run/:/host/var/run/
        - ./crypto-config/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/peers/peer0.org1.example.com/msp:/etc/hyperledger/msp/peer
        - ./crypto-config/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users:/etc/hyperledger/msp/users
        - ./config:/etc/hyperledger/configtx
    depends_on:
      - orderer.example.com
    networks:
      - basic